Uh-Oh...it sounds like IGN (U.S.) may have been paid off...

http://movies.ign.com/articles/970/970094p1.html

Innuendo aside, this movie's got a pair.
by Christopher Monfette


April 9, 2009 - In this modern, Web-ridden era of ours, advanced reviews and an endless succession of trailers and marketing ploys have mastered the art of making a bad movie look good or a good movie look better, eliminating that too-rare experience of discovering that a film you initially thought would be crap was actually quite the opposite. So count me surprised at the degree to which I enjoyed Dragonball: Evolution.

Right off the bat, hardcore fans will undoubtedly find things to pick apart with the adaptation, arguing that there's simply no way the movie could match the original anime. And you're right. It doesn't. And, really, what live-action movie ever could? The visual style, pacing, characters and storytelling are so unique to the animated series that any kind of slavish re-interpretation of them would almost certainly fail. This is the very same reason that Speed Racer never fired effectively on all cylinders, despite bravely attempting an inventive new approach. That said, Dragonball: Evolution is perhaps the most successful live-action film to date to utilize costume, production and audio design – not to mention some inspired fight choreography – to provide the flavor of anime without becoming overly cartoonish. It absolutely feels within the spirit of the presentation without attempting to be so overly loyal as to fall flat on its face.

Secondly, this is an origin story and it does a relatively good job of establishing a world and setting up the rules. The story is simple: Goku and his friends – Bulma, Yamacha and Master Roshi – must reunite the seven sacred Dragonballs before the evil Lord Piccolo can collect them and destroy the world. No doubt, the film takes its liberties, and it'll depend entirely upon your level of sensitivity whether you're OK with them. For example, the world in which the movie takes place is much more Westernized – a cross-cultural melting-pot, practically conceived, one imagines, to make the movie more marketable. But the mythology itself, as well as some of the set design and plot elements, never make the film feel too far away from its Eastern roots.

The problem with most of those movies is simply that nobody takes them seriously. At best, they're cash-cows for videogame tie-in's and product placement, created as an excuse to display some flashy fight choreography and set design, but never sufficiently funded to feel anything other than cheap. Nobody ever pays attention to the story, let alone the level of performance. But with Dragonball, the fan base is simply too large, the phenomenon too massive, to try and sneak by some half-hearted cinematic effort.

And aside from the obvious, though certainly not grand, budget, what makes Dragonball at least half-way entertaining is the cast. Justin Chatwin is immensely likeable in this role, and while Goku's journey is absolutely nothing we haven't seen before – save the world, protect your friends and avenge the death of your master – he and the rest of the cast do an admirable job at creating characters the audience can actually care about. Chow Yun-Fat captures the whimsical, half-drunken essence of Roshi and Emmy Rossum, despite being something of a departure from the anime's vision of Bulma, brings a lot of kick-ass chick charisma to the role. None of which would matter at all if the script, written by Ben Ramsey, didn't stop the action and pause the special effects to offer a handful of rather effective character beats. Dragonball isn't just about getting to the next set piece – of which there are plenty – and chooses, instead, to allow its characters moments to be just that… characters. And fortunately, with the exception of Yamacha – who is arguably the least well-drawn – most of the cast rises to the challenge.


Keep in mind that the film is nowhere near perfect. There are a few obvious plot-holes and the occasional eye-rolling, too-convenient coincidence. Lord Piccolo simply isn't given enough to do to make him appear extremely menacing, and his make-up looks as if it had been pulled straight from the storage closest of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Will people find reasons to hate Dragonball? Absolutely. And will others find reasons to enjoy it? You bet. But we suspect that the younger, less discriminating fans in the audience will like it well enough and that their parents just might, surprisingly, have a good time as well. The older, more set-in-their-ways crowd will undoubtedly pick it apart, but at the very least, we here at IGN think there's something to enjoy, if not necessarily love, about Dragonball: Evolution.

Overall Rating: 5/10

Son Goku wrote:http://movies.ign.com/articles/970/970094p1.html

Innuendo aside, this movie's got a pair.
by Christopher Monfette

Right off the bat, hardcore fans will undoubtedly find things to pick apart with the adaptation, arguing that there's simply no way the movie could match the original anime. And you're right. It doesn't. And, really, what live-action movie ever could? The visual style, pacing, characters and storytelling are so unique to the animated series that any kind of slavish re-interpretation of them would almost certainly fail. This is the very same reason that Speed Racer never fired effectively on all cylinders, despite bravely attempting an inventive new approach. That said, Dragonball: Evolution is perhaps the most successful live-action film to date to utilize costume, production and audio design – not to mention some inspired fight choreography – to provide the flavor of anime without becoming overly cartoonish. It absolutely feels within the spirit of the presentation without attempting to be so overly loyal as to fall flat on its face.

WTF??? Jesus... Of course that the guy has been paid to say that bullshit!! "most successfull live action film", more successul than watchman??? ... oh wait the guy gives an indirect: "it asolutely feels within the spirit of the presentation WITHOUT ATTEMPTING TO BE SO OVERLY LOYAL AS TO FALL FLAT ON ITS FACE"... Yea, right!!!

he also says the movie have an "INSPIRED FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY"??? WTF??
Inspired fight choreography have the movie Ong-Bak.. that were awesome fight scenes!!!!
"to provide the flavor of anime without becoming overly cartoonish" (the guy talking about the fight scenes).. I say that a fight close to the anime was Neo vs Smith in the matrix 3, and that fight was not childish... it have much more effort, choreography and epicness than DBE ever had!!!!!

Im not going to make more comments to his review, because the text would be too long

DBE is full of mistakes, inconsistencies, stupid cliches, overrated characters, poor character development, plot holes, bad acting, RIDICULOUS special effects, CHILDISH KIDS FIGHTS...etc, the movie is worst than the disney films!!!! And the most important thing: DBE do not HAVE ANY RESEMBLESS with the anime!!!! How can someone make a good review to this movie without being paid to do that???

"But with Dragonball, the fan base is simply too large, the phenomenon too massive, to try and sneak by some half-hearted cinematic effort."

Um... which is exactly what they did.

"And aside from the obvious, though certainly not grand, budget, what makes Dragonball at least half-way entertaining is the cast. Justin Chatwin is immensely likeable in this role, and while Goku's journey is absolutely nothing we haven't seen before – save the world, protect your friends and avenge the death of your master – he and the rest of the cast do an admirable job at creating characters the audience can actually care about. Chow Yun-Fat captures the whimsical, half-drunken essence of Roshi and Emmy Rossum, despite being something of a departure from the anime's vision of Bulma, brings a lot of kick-ass chick charisma to the role."

Bullshit. Pure and utter bullshit.

what le FUCK!!!

I mean, how can the UK IGN and the USA IGN be at such odds?!

Internal struggle maybe.

Either way, this review seems more in line to what I expected. I never thought evolution would "truly" bomb. I just had hope. One thing is for sure, it will not make enough money for a sequel...if course since Fox is rooling in money, that wont matter..."sigh"...guess the fighting goes on...

I wouldn't say it's all of IGN as the U.S.A. team gave Chun-li and Max Payne bad reviews. I'd say it's this **** Christopher Monfette. I think I might do some research to see if he's worked for FOX news in the past.

Okay. I did some research. This guy, despite the fact that he claims to be cynical has never given a movie a review under a 2.5/5.

Paid off? Haha. God you guys are hilarious.

Thanx Son Goku for the news.

The visual style, pacing, characters and storytelling are so unique to the animated series that any kind of slavish re-interpretation of them would almost certainly fail.

This is like taken from my mouth This is what I always repeat...

But then again wtf is he talking about DBE being successful, 25 millions all over the word except in US and EU is successful for 100 million $...no way.

"...he and the rest of the cast do an admirable job at creating characters the audience can actually care about."
Lol, their acting was terrible. u_u

ningen wrote:"...he and the rest of the cast do an admirable job at creating characters the audience can actually care about."
Lol, their acting was terrible. u_u

And are they saying that the true DB characters are not interesting enought to the audience care about???